Background:

Rahul is currently a Science Technology Innovation Policy Fellow at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He pursued masters in medicinal chemistry from the Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune, a post-graduate diploma in patinformatics from CSIR/Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Pune and a post-graduate diploma in patent law from the Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad.

He facilitates Center-State and inter-Ministerial coordination for science and technology in India and National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. His recent contributions include the projects – Intellectual Property Models for Accelerating Sustainability Transitions (IPACST) funded by NORFACE and Belmont Forum; data economics and policy (DataKaveri) funded by IUDX, MoHUA and Omidyar Network India. He also practised a fellowship at the CSIR Unit for Research and Development of Information Products (URDIP), Pune. He contributed to the projects – Intellectual Property Evaluation and Commercialisation (IPEC) and Informatics for Drug-repurposing and Rescue Discover (IDrRD) at URDIP.

Research Interests:

Rahul is interested in intellectual property (IP) management and data governance. He explores IP informatics in pharmaceuticals, IP models accelerating sustainability transitions, and non-personal data policy frameworks.

Background:

Arthita is a Policy Fellow working for Centre-State and Inter-ministerial coordination for the purpose of strengthening the Centre-state and Inter-ministerial partnerships and collaboration in STI related areas to the Government of India in association with the Department of Science and Technology, GoI, New Delhi and DST Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. As a part of the STIP Secretariat GoI, she is actively part of intra-departmental coordination mechanism in place to effectively coordinate and create synergy in WISE-KIRAN division of DST and connect them with various line ministries and States for STI policy related work.

Arthita has completed her B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Mathematics from Visva Bharati Central University, West Bengal, India. She earned her degree of Bachelor of Education from Visva Bharati Central University. She was awarded INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research Programme) fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India.

Research Interests:

STI Policy, Technology Studies, Mathematical Modelling, Ecological Modelling, Epidemiology.

Publication:

1. Arthita Batabyal, Jana, D.: Significance of additional food to mutually interfering predator
under herd behavior of prey on the stability of a spatio-temporal system. Communications in
Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation (SCI, Scopus, Online ISSN: 1007-5704,
IF: 4.26), 93 (2020).

2. Batabyal, S., Arthita Batabyal: Mathematical computations on epidemiology: A case study of  the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Theory in Biosciences, (SCI, SCIE, Scopus, Online
ISSN: 1611-7530, IF: 1.303), 140(2), 123-138, (2021).

3. Batabyal, S., Arthita, Batabyal: Public Healthcare System Capacity During COVID-19: A
Computational Case Study of SARS-CoV-2. Health Science Reports, (PubMed, PubMed  Central, Scopus, Online ISSN: 2398-8835), Article DOI: 10.1002/hsr2.305, (2021).

Background:

Saurabh completed his B.Sc in Zoology (Hons) from Shivaji College, University of Delhi, followed by Masters in Life Sciences from the Central University of Punjab. He pursued his research from the National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi, and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. He has more than four years of research experience with several publications in National & International Journals. He has also acted as an invited reviewer for various renowned international journals, including Annals of Neurosciences, Medical Science Monitor, Clinical Microbiology and Infection, and OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying. He has been awarded the Bharat Nirman Award in the behavioral change category at India International Science Festival (IISF-2017). He is an avid learner and is currently working as a Young Policy Professional at DST, New Delhi. At present, he is a part of the STIP secretariat and is working on the new Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.

Publications:

Journal Publications:

1. Ravi P Cholia, Sanju Kumari, Saurabh Kumar, Manpreet Kaur, Manbir Kaur, Raj Kumar, Monisha Dhiman, and Anil K. Mantha. An in vitro study ascertaining the role of H2O2 and glucose oxidase in modulation of antioxidant potential and cancer cell survival mechanisms in glioblastoma U-87 MG cells. Metabolic Brain Disease. 32 (5), 1705-1716. DOI: 10.1007/s11011-017-0057-6 PMID: 28676971
2. Deepak Kumar Pal, Ashish Bhalla, Sridhar Bammidi, Shirley Telles, Adarsh Kohli, Saurabh Kumar, Pooja Devi et al. Can yoga-based diabetes management studies facilitate integrative medicine in india? Current status and future directions. Integrative Medicine International. 4 (3-4), 125-141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1159/000479816
3. Atul Kumar Goyal, Sanjay Bhadada, Neeru Malik, Abhilasha Anand, Raman Kumar, Sridhar Bammidi, Rahul Tyagi, Shweta Modgil, Kaushal Sharma, Parul Bali, Deepak Kumar Pal, Saurabh Kumar, et al. Guinness world record attempt as a method to pivot the role of Yoga in Diabetes management. Annals of Neurosciences. 26 (1), 21-24. DOI: 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.260105 PMID: 31975768
4. Akshay Anand, Avijit Banik, Gillipsie Minhas, Sridhar Bammidi, Keshav Thakur, Kaushal Sharma, Rahul Tyagi, Shweta Modgil, Parul Bali, Natasha Sayal, Paramvir Kaur, Deepak Kumar Pal, Atul Kumar Goyal, Vinod Bhatt, Navneet Kaur, Saurabh Kumar, al. Creating a role model for “Academicians” Social Responsibility (ASR) synergizing with Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan: A campus hygiene initiative by PGIMER, Chandigarh. Annals of Neurosciences. 2019. 26 (2), 75-81. DOI: 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.260207 PMID: 31975777
5. Gurwattan S Miranpuri, Justyn Nguyen, Neydis Moreno, Noemi A Yutuc, Jason Kim, Seah Buttar, Greta R Brown, Sydney E Sauer, Chandra K Singh, Saurabh Kumar, Daniel K Resnick. Folic Acid Modulates Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Expression Following Spinal Cord Injury. Annals of Neurosciences. 2019. 26 (2), 60-65. DOI: 5214/ans.0972.7531.260205 PMID:31975775
6. Parul Bali, Navneet Kaur, Abha Tiwari, Sridhar Bammidi, Vivek Podder, Chandra Devi, Saurabh Kumar, Madhava Sai Sivapuram, Abdul Ghani, Shweta Modgil, Neeru Malik, Akshay Anand. Effectiveness of Yoga as the Public Health Intervention Module in the Management of Diabetes and Diabetes Associated Dementia in South East Asia: A Narrative Review.Neuroepidemiology. 54 (4), 287–303. DOI: 10.1159/000505816 PMID: 32074622
7. Saurabh Kumar*, Shweta Modgil, Sridhar Bammidi, et al. Allium cepa exerts neuroprotective effect on retinal ganglion cells of pterygopalatine artery (PPA) ligated mice. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. 11 (4), 489-494. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaim.2019.08.002 PMID: 32088091
8. Vivek Podder, Vinod Srivastava, Saurabh Kumar*,et al. Prevalence and Awareness of Stroke and Other Comorbidities Associated with Diabetes in Northwest India. Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice. 11 (3), 467. DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1709369 PMID: 32753814
9. Saurabh Kumar*^#. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: Hope and search for effective therapeutic agent. Letters in Drug Design & Discovery. 17 (8), 940-942. DOI:10.2174/1570180817999200612095513
10. Saurabh Kumar*, Richa Shri, Sushmita Kaushik, Varinder Singh, Akshay Anand. Electrophysiological assessment of retinal functions by ERG in Ischemia/Reperfusion (I/R) Allium cepa pre-treated mice. Integrative Medicine Case Reports. 2020. 1 (1), 18-28. DOI: 38205/imcr.010118
11. Saurabh Kumar*, Priya Mehra, Akshay Anand. Policy research into Quality assessment of published data from Medical Institutes can increase the authenticity of translation. Annals of neurosciences. 27 (2), 45-46. DOI: 10.1177/0972753120965877
12. Saurabh Kumar*^#, Sandeep Kumar, Adil Karim, Kamlesh Bisht, Abdul Ghani, Vimal Singh Munda. Outbreak of respiratory infection: nCoV-2019 current status and its impact on global health. Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews. 16 (3), 156-164. DOI: 10.2174/1573398X16999201203162129
13. Saurabh Kumar*^#, Vinit Sharma, and Kanu Priya. Battle against COVID-19: Efficacy of Convalescent Plasma as an emergency therapy. American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 41, 244-246. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2020.05.101 PMID: 32505474
14. Saurabh Kumar*, Akshay Anand, Raghuram Nagarathna, et al. Prevalence of prediabetes, and diabetes in Chandigarh and Panchkula region based on glycated haemoglobin and Indian diabetes risk score. Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. 4 (1), e00162. DOI: 10.1002/edm2.162
15. Saurabh Kumar*#, Sakshi Sudha, Madhu Chopra, Famida Khan, Kanupriya Sharma. Physical Exercise and Yoga: as an alternative approach towards COVID-19 management. Current Traditional Medicine. Online ahead of print. DOI: 10.2174/2215083807666210322152352
16. Saurabh Kumar*^#, Divya Dwivedi, Madhu Chopra. COVID-19 Outbreak: Neurological Manifestations beyond Cough and Fever. CNS & Neurological Disorders – Drug Targets. 20 (2), 101-104. DOI: 10.2174/1871527319666201120143654 PMID: 33222680
17. Saurabh Kumar^*#. AIDS and COVID-19 infections: impact on vulnerable Indian population. New Microbes and New Infections. 2021. 42 (July 2021), 100903. DOI: 10.1016/j.nmni.2021.100903
18. Saurabh Kumar^*#. Second wave of COVID-19: Emergency situation in India. Journal of Travel Medicine. Online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taab082 PMID: 34037783
    
    

Book Chapters

1. Saurabh Kumar*, Shweta Modgil, Kaushal Sharma, Akshay Anand. The need for alternative therapies in eye disorders. Essentials in Ophthalmology, Springer Nature. Advances in Vision Research, Volume III. 2021. pp.425-434. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-9184-6_29
2. Kaushal Sharma, Rahul Tyagi, Priya Battu, Saurabh Kumar, NK Sharma, Akshay Anand. Contribution of rare allele and Junk Genome in AMD complexity. Essentials in Ophthalmology, Springer Nature. Advances in Vision Research, Volume III. 2021. pp.89-96. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-9184-6_7
3. Saurabh Kumar^*#, Chandra Devi, Subhabrata Sarkar, et al. Convalescent Plasma: An Evidence-Based Old Therapy to Treat Novel Coronavirus Patients. Biotechnology to Combat COVID-19. 2021. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.97073
   
   

Online content

4. Saurabh Kumar^*#, Madhu Chopra. COVID-19 vaccine development: need for a pre-planned vaccination program. Science Policy Forum. Link: http://thesciencepolicyforum.org/articles/perspectives/vaccinedevelopment/
5. Saurabh Kumar. Rapid Response: Re: Covid-19: India sees new spike in cases despite vaccine rollout. BMJ. Link: https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n854/rr-0

Research Interests:

Famida’s research interest area includes: To unfold the complexity of Science communication strategically and role of public engagement and policy interventions. How public perception and data gathering in science so important? Role of scientists and research organizations to encourage public for effective engagement, and data gathering to formulate evidence-based Science communication programmes.

Background:

Famida Khan is a DST-Science, Technology and Innovation Policy- Young Policy Professional at Department of Science & Technology (DST) GoI, New Delhi, since April 2020. She is a part of Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (STIP) Secretariat 2020 and involved into STIP 2020 formulation process since then.

Prior to this, she was a Research Associate-II at Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, under “India-UK Water Quality Research Programme” Involving UK’S Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She has worked with Vigyan Prasar (An Autonomous organization of DST) as a Project Assistant and curated content for Yoga Mobile App. She has also worked with CSIR-NISCAIR. During her work at INSA, she contributed in organizing several National and International workshops and seminars. She also contributed in organizing AASSA-INSA-NISCAIR Regional Workshop on “Share Communication Science Breakthroughs: Fake News Paid News and Ethic”.

Famida holds a Master of Philosophy in Chemistry. She completed her research work on therapeutic uses of Tephrosia purpurea a medicinal plant and its chemical constituents, efficacy, potency, side effect and therapeutic spectrum along with the process of isolation, characterization, and utilization of extracted bioactive compounds by using Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC), column chromatography, UV/VIS Spectroscopy, and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) from Jamia Hamdard Laboratories, Ghaziabad. She also holds Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry. She obtained a Higher diploma in Software Engineering from NIIT, New Delhi. She did Bachelor of Education and qualified “Course on Computer Concepts (CCC)” certification, and “Central Teacher Eligibility Test (C-TET)” twice. She also holds Bachelor of Science. She has attended training programmes on “Evidence-based Science Policy Making” and “Women in Science Journalism” of British Council. She has also been a recipient of CSIR Diamond Jubilee Research Interns Award.

Publications:

Famida Khan, Kamlesh Bilgaiyan & Santosh Joshi. IDENTIFICATION AND ESTIMATION OF RUTOSIDE TRYHYDRATE (RUTIN) IN HYDROALCOHOLIC EXTRACT OF TEPHROSIA PURPUREA; A SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC APPROACH, Eduved International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, Vol.3-2016.

Famida Khan. Abstract Published in India International Science Festival (IISF) – Young Scientists’ Conclave (YSC), Theme: Indigenous Science and Technology Abstract ID: INDG_122, 2016.

Research Interests:

Ashwini’s research is dedicated to intellectual property (IP) management and policy. Her studies address research gaps at the intersection of the IP and medicines. Also, her recent investigations focus on the role of IP in climatology. She is, in particular, interested in the accelerated development and diffusion of climate change mitigation technologies.

Background:

Ashwini is currently working as Young Policy Professional at the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India in association with the Department of Science and Technology, GoI, New Delhi and DST Centre for Policy Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. As a part of the STIP2020 Secretariat GoI, she is actively involved in the making of India’s new Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020 and National Geospatial Policy 2020.

Before joining Office of the PSA to GoI, Ashwini practised her fellowship at CSIR Unit for Research and Development of Information Products, Pune in the domain of intellectual property management for two and half years. There she handled queries of intellectual property evaluation and commercialisation. By training, Ashwini pursued her post-graduate studies in plant science with the specialisation in pharmacognosy from the Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. She also pursued a post-graduate diploma in intellectual property law.

Research Interests:

Amrita’s research interests lie at the crossroads of gender and participatory policy-making set against the context of climate change. Her focus remains on understanding the interlinkages between building community resilience and the greater participation of women in climate adaptation policy making. In the future, she would like to explore how the intersectional identities of women from Global South affect their vulnerabilities to climate change and the possibilities of reorienting global and national policy making processes to create inclusive spaces of participation for women who remain at the frontline of anthropogenic climate change.

Background:

Amrita is currently working as a Young Policy Professional (YPP) and is hosted by the Department of Science and Technology, GoI, New Delhi. She is part of the Science Technology Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020 secretariat. She has been the Activity Lead for ‘Thoughts for India’- a community radio outreach programme as part of the STIP 2020 Track 1 process designed for public consultation.

She has completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science (Hons.) from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Post that, she worked with STOP NGO, New Delhi that worked to combat trafficking in India and across borders. She completed her postgraduate degree in Political Science with International Relations from Jadavpur University. She has been a recipient of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Sylff) fellowship at the Master’s level. Post that, she has worked with the School of Media, Communication and Culture, Jadavpur University as a Project Fellow.

Publication:

Journal Paper: Debabrata. R, Mukherjee. A, Rethinking Rehabilitation: For the Girl Child in the Indian Context, Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond: An International Journal on Alternative Care, Vol. 3, issue 2, Pg 193-199. Article DOI: 10.5958/2349-3011.2016.00013.